Fifty Shades of Purple

Purple  is my favourite color, but fifty shades ?  I don't think so. I have actually only a few shades, and mostly amethyst. Some shades mentioned in Wikipedia include the following:

amethyst, eggplant, fuchsia, indigo, lavender, magenta, mauve, orchid, plum, periwinkle, violet, mulberry, wisteria  

 

Being a purple person I have always wanted purple beads to go with my outfits but purple beads that are old and preferably ancient are scarce. So I was mighty pleased to come up with the three bracelets below strung in purply shades.

 



Purply shades

 

The top most bracelet features a large biconical faceted amethyst (maybe fluorite) bead as centerpiece, strung with small faceted biconical crystal beads. The crystal beads are ancient from Indonesia while the amethyst or fluorite is from China of unknown vintage and hopefully its also ancient or at least old.

Real cool beads!



 Bracelet no 2 shown below has another large amethyst (not sure whether its fluorite)bead as centre piece(I bought 3 of these beads at one go, so I still have one more to think up a design) this time strung with dark purple semi round pearls.

 



Dark and light shades of purple



The purple pearls are also from China and I have a feeling they are new and dyed  but they add another shade of purple  and contrast fabulously with the light amethyst bead.

The last  bracelet  uses 3 small amethyst or fluorite beads as accents to enhance the crystal, agate and moonstone beads. The old crystals are from Vietnam and all the rest  from Kashmir.



Amethyst accents light up the ancient crystals



In my purple mood I dug into my bead chest and managed to turn up a few ancient beads in varying shades of purple



Ancient lotus beads from Myanmar, likely Pyu dynasty



 

Amethyst lotus bud from Cambodia more likely vintage than ancient



And my most prized, purply  eyebead  from Warring States period (475-221BC). There are altogether 15 purple dots on this dotty bead!

Dotty eyebead from Warring States

Yet another  eyebead in dark and light shades of lavender.

Ancient glass eyebead

 

The last piece of purply stuff that I show has been handmade by me to celebrate this purple shades post. Its a  kumihimo braided bracelet. It uses an antique jade button (alas not purple jade but green jade) as the clasp and sits well on the wrist.
 

Kumihimo Braided Bracelet

 

 

Swinging Eyes

Here's another ancient swinger! The eyebead, swinging in the Huan.


Briefly, a Huan according to the Chinese definition is a ring with a big central hole as opposed to a Bi which has a small hole. There are more detailed differences separating a Huan  from a Bi, but for my purpose this short description should surfice.

Not sure what century this Huan belongs to but if I were to hazard a guess, I would say Han 206BCE–220 AD or earlier. Huans are normally made of jade but this one looks more like agate or manao.

I am hoping that the many internal fissures or crazing on the Huan is a sign of great age. These fissures also look like what the archaic jade analysts describe as "cleaving veins". Of course "cleaving veins" may apply to jade only and I am using my imagination to stretch it a bit :) Below close up of the Huan. Hope what looks like "cleaving veins" to me can be clearly seen.


There are perforations at the top and bottom of the Huan ring which is just perfect for me to attach the eyebead using the flower knot to create a dangle. Wow, what a swinging threesome of flower knot, Huan and eyebead.

The eyebead hails from the Warring States period approximately 481-221 BCE and has beautiful violet and brown spots(the eyes) against a background of pretty blue faience.

PS :
Just wish to add that the flower knot shown above is not my handwork. It was bought from a shop.

Eyes in Jade Jue

One day while looking through a Chinese jade book *
I was excited to come across an artefact from the Warring States period (481-221 BCE.) consisting of a silver belt and jade hook embellished with 3 jade jues and 3 warring states eyebeads. I had not previously known that Warring Sates eyebeads could be used as a decorative element on another article. I had thought that such beads were only meant to be worn. So it was indeed a revelation and it prompted me to dig out my own jade jues and Warring States eyebeads for some kind of action.

Lacking a silver belt, I then made do with my jues and eyebeads to come up with the following composition "Eyes in Jade Jues" A jue is a slit ring and were used as earrings in ancient China and neighbouring Vietnam. Eyebeads are the famed Warring States beads from China.



The two jade jues used in above picture are from Vietnam's Sa Hu culture ((1000BC-200AD). The eyebeads are from Warring States period (481-221BC)and were purchased in China. So this is what we would call a "rojak" combination of styles, periods and cultures.

The jues are well polished nephrite with bevelled edges and even after many centuries of burial are still wonderfully tactile. The eyebeads are made of faience(ie not glass) with glaze decorations and are full of attitude.

Apologies that the jues and eyebeads are not perfect fits but I had to make do as it is not easy to have a large supply of these ancient materials. Just hope this humble illustration of "Eyes in Jues" will be an eyeopener for jade and bead lovers everywhere.

* Gems of Beijing Cultural Relics Series p.67 (for those who want to refer to the image)